Saint Michael's College: Japan Study Trip 2019

Snug between the soba restaurants and residence buildings there are hidden oases. Although known to the locals, to a foriegner one could easily miss a garden such as the Mirun-an garden we visited today. Within its blue stone walls a garden lies with a narrow path that sneaks around providing the guest with a new [...]

Hello friends and family, Today we met with students and staff from Kokugakuin University. To start our day we went to the shrine on their campus and participated in a prayer. After, we were each matched with 2 students and they showed us around Shibuya crossing. Each group went a different way, to help with [...]

After a day of deep thoughts and humidity, we cooled off with some ice cream. Pictured, you can see some of the funky parfaits on the menu including shrimp and octopus. We received an unexpected visit from the head Buddhist monk of the Honenin Temple. With the help of Furakawa Sensei and her translating skills, [...]

  Our students have recorded their reflections on varied experiences in journals. Below you will see a sampling of the latest entries from each of the students: …..nature is everywhere which makes city life much more palatable for me.  I can wander for hours and not feel the burning need to go forest bathing.  I [...]

After a long bus ride through the country of Japan we ended up in the beautiful village of Ohara ready to learn about the process of creating dye to use for scarves. We followed our fearless leader over the river and through the woods until we surrendered to google maps to find the dye studio. [...]

  Our journey to Kyoto, Japan has offered students an array of experiences that, as you have seen, range from hands-on artistic work in clay, calligraphy, basket weaving, and dye, visits to temples and shrines, home stays in a traditional village, spending a day at a primary school and interacting with Doshisha University students, and, [...]

         

Saying goodbye to our home stay families was bittersweet, but we excitedly journeyed back into central Miyama for a basket weaving crash course. After a lot of water and concentration, we finally created something that resembled baskets - kanpai! We enjoyed a variety of bento boxes outside of the visitors center and bought locally sourced [...]

Over the past two days we got to visit and experience the gorgeous thatch roof village of Miyama, Japan. The village consists of around 100 homes and is a protected area in Japan because of its historical significance. The thatch roof has a "snow break" and horse ride style crosses which continue into the thatch [...]

  The first mission of the day was to take a 30 minute directionless walk. This gave us the opportunity to stumble upon some hidden gems and acquire a deeper understanding of the city. Discovering new things around every corner, we happened upon many local shops that sold clothing, flowers, and traditional crafts.  With Kyoto [...]

We asked students to take a 30 minute directionless walk this morning. The goal was to encourage exploration beyond our packed schedule and nourish that wonderful sense of discovery.  One way to learn about “place” no matter which continent or city is to get lost meandering through tiny passages between the boulevards. (Obviously it is [...]

We had the chance to observe a music, art, science, and home ec class.  In the home ec class students were learning how to properly make tea. Of course a group photo on a beautiful sunny day at the University before refueling with ice cream and coffee. We had the amazing opportunity to eat dinner [...]